Kizer, Zaire: No Changes In Notre Dame Quarterback Plan For Texas
According to the central figures in this two-quarterback affair, not much has changed since the media last spoke to DeShone Kizer and Malik Zaire on Aug. 17.
Here’s where things stand with the Notre Dame quarterbacks following Wednesday’s practice:
1. Both Kizer and Zaire would still prefer to be the outright starter, though they’re attempting to put aside those feelings in order to beat Texas on Sunday.
2. According to Zaire, the practice repetitions haven’t changed. The senior said everything has been “vanilla,” or “pretty straight down the middle.”
3. Neither know coach Brian Kelly’s exact plans for Sunday — or at least did not divulge those secrets Wednesday night.
“We’ll see what happens,” Zaire said, flashing a big smile for the cameras.
Kelly said Tuesday that he expects his quarterbacks to be frustrated with the decision, although the coach hopes those emotions subside for 60 minutes in Austin, Texas.
Kizer and Zaire did little to hide those sentiments Wednesday evening.
“I’d obviously love to be the guy to lead Notre Dame out there and play every snap, just like every other competitor out there,” said Kizer, a junior. “If we can go out there and play five overtimes, I want every last snap of those overtimes. This is a situation where you have to trust in the man up top, and that’s the guy who has the corner office here, that’s Coach Kelly.”
“Whatever he has going in his little mind, it’s probably going to be the right one. I should say big mind, after 26 years of coaching football. He’s the right guy to lead us through a two-quarterback system and whatever he does out there I’m sure is going to be the right way for us to go out and get a win against Texas.”
Kelly spoke in-depth at his press conference Tuesday about how he might use the quarterbacks. What Texas’ defense does more than anything will determine who the Irish put at quarterback.
“I think that you want to keep your quarterbacks — flow is important, rhythm is important,” Kelly said. “But if we get into a particular field zone that I think another quarterback can be more effective based upon what Texas is doing, I may have to supersede the hot quarterback, if you will, for the right person at the right time.”
Zaire, who has won his three college starts but missed nearly all of 2015 with a broken foot, was asked by a reporter what Kelly meant when Kelly said read the “flow” of the game.
“I don’t know. Coach Kelly knows all the answers to that,” Zaire said.
Earlier in the week, Kelly tried to downplay the quarterbacks and shift some focus onto other positions. Kizer took that as a compliment Wednesday.
“When you have two of our best playmakers at this position, it’s easy to downplay it because you know what you’re going to get out of us,” Kizer said. “You’re going to get guys who are going to compete, you’re going to get guys that expect greatness out of themselves and guys who want to go out and make plays. To downplay us is more of an opportunity to show that there’s not too much worry coming out of us.
“We know that this decision is out of our hands and we’ve just got to go out there and do what we do. As long as you continue to compete at a high level and demand greatness out of yourself and focus on yourself, things will be fine. We want to win games, and that’s one thing that we can agree on. However Coach Kelly wants to get to that point is how we’ll go about it.”
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